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On a Saturday in March 1941, Jimmy Stewart, America's boy-next-door actor, left Hollywood behind and took the oath of service in the United States Army Air Corps. Once in the service, Stewart ducked the press at every opportunity and to a large extent for the next four years remained behind the secure perimeters of air bases in the Western Hemisphere serving his country. Then at war's end he refused to discuss what had happened "over there," and continued to be tight lipped about it to the end of his life. In effect, Jimmy Stewart took the story of his military service with him to the grave. "Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe" tells that story by presenting the first in-depth look behind the scenes at Jimmy Stewart's life in the skies over Germany through 20 combat missions, and, ultimately, his return to Hollywood the changed man who embarked on production of his first post-war film, "It's a Wonderful Life."

Robert Matzen spent 10 years working in communications for NASA Headquarters. He is also a filmmaker whose work has been nationally broadcast and has won major awards. His 2001 historical documentary, "When the Forest Ran Red," was broadcast on PBS and is now recognized as the classic interpretation of the French and Indian War in America.

The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories.

Michael J. Klarman is Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and author of the Bancroft Prize-winning "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights."

Much like the rest of the nation, South Central Pennsylvania struggled with slavery. The institution lingered locally for more than fifty years, although it was virtually extinct everywhere else within Pennsylvania. Gradually, antislavery views prevailed. The Appalachian Mountains and the Susquehanna River provided natural cover for fleeing slaves, causing an influx of travel along the Underground Railroad. Locals like William Wright and James McAllister assisted these runaways while publicly advocating to abolish slavery. Historian Cooper Wingert reveals the struggles between slavery and abolition in South Central Pennsylvania.

Cooper H. Wingert is the author of ten books and numerous articles on slavery and the American Civil War. He is the recipient of the 2012 Dr. James I. Robertson Jr. Literary Award for Confederate History, in recognition for his book "The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg."

On an August morning in 1877, a dispute over wages exploded between miners and coal company owners. A furious mob rushed down Lackawanna Avenue only to be met by a deadly hail of bullets. With its vast coal fields, mills and rail lines, Scranton became a hotbed for labor activity. Many were discontented by working endless and dangerous hours for minimal pay. The disputes mostly ended in losses for labor, but after a strike that lasted more than one hundred days, John Mitchell helped win higher wages, a shorter workday and better working conditions for coal miners. The legendary 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike Commission hearings began in Scranton, where famed lawyer Clarence Darrow championed workers' rights.

Margo L. Azzarelli, a historian and researcher, has written four local history books for Arcadia Publishing and The History Press and is the local history columnist for "Our Town, Lackawanna County." Marnie Azzarelli is a local historian and docent for the Lackawanna Historical Society. In 2014, she graduated from Marywood University with a bachelor's degree in English and received the J. Harold Brislin award for distinction in creative writing.

Pulitzer Prize–nominated former Wall Street Journal reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells the colorful story of the election battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a professional Democratic politician from New York, and Whig Party upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who was nicknamed "Old Tippecanoe" after a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. Shafer shows how the pivotal campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" marked a series of firsts that changed presidential politicking forever: the first presidential campaign as mass entertainment, directed at middle- and lower-income voters; the first "image campaign," in which strategists painted Harrison as an everyman living in a log cabin sipping hard cider (in fact, he was born into wealth, lived in a twenty-two-room mansion, and drank only sweet cider); the first campaign in which a candidate, Harrison, traveled and delivered speeches directly to voters; the first one influenced by major campaign donations; the first in which women openly participated; and the first involving massive grassroots rallies, attended by tens of thousands and marked by elaborate fanfare, including bands, floats, a log cabin on wheels, and the world's tallest man.Some of history's most fascinating figures—including Susan B. Anthony, Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Thaddeus Stevens, and Walt Whitman—pass through this colorful story, which is essential reading for anyone interested in learning when image first came to trump ideas in presidential politics.

Ronald G. Shafer was an editor, reporter, and columnist at the Wall Street Journal for thirty-eight years, based in Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, DC, where he was the political features editor. In 1990 he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. Shafer is now a freelance writer and lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.